Page 111 of Galen

How did someone escape the underworld? I couldn’t exactly walk out.

The fighting pit!Castor would be there. I needed to find him. Then, hopefully he knew a way to go back home, otherwise we were royally screwed.

I fought to catch my breath as I hid in the trees. The darkness made my blurry vision even worse, and I strained to see what was going on in the distance.

Something with large wings rose into the air. And then I saw a flash of silvery-white hair. It stood out in the darkness. Another shape lifted into the air and lunged toward the other winged figure.

“Simon?”

I screeched before squinting at the person in front of me. They stepped closer, allowing me to see them clearer. Short black hair and a body stacked with rippling muscles. Black wings with orange glimmering in his feathers.

“Raiden?” I asked, unsure I was seeing things correctly.

“Yeah, it’s me. We’ve been—”

I dove toward him and buried my face in his chest. Tears burned in my eyes before slipping free. If he was really here, that meant Galen and the others were too. Raiden returned my hold and tried to soothe me, but it only made me cry harder.

“I was so scared,” I said, clinging on to him.

“We’re not out of the woods yet,” he responded and then paused before chuckling a bit. “Literally. We’re in the woods.”

I pulled away from him and wiped at my eyes. “Where’s Galen?”

Just then, a booming roar filled the air, followed by men screaming.

“Right there,” Raiden said. “He’s, uh…”

“Wrath,” I said, my heart sinking into my gut.

Raiden nodded. “He did it so he’d be strong enough to save you.” He turned to look at the swarm of demons. “Daman was fighting Phoenix last I saw. Al is fighting Belphegor.”

I looked closer at the winged figures sword fighting in the air. “That’s Alastair?”

“Yeah. I need you to stay here, okay? Don’t move from this spot. You should be safe until we can grab Castor and get the fuck out of here. We’re holding our own, but more will come soon, and we won’t be able to hold them all—”

Before he finished his sentence, three demons charged us.

Raiden decapitated one with a sword, then thrust a dagger into the chest of another. The third one was more of a challenge. The red-skinned demon had to be at least eight feet tall and carried a sword with a massive blade that looked like it could easily chop a man in two. He dodged Raiden’s first attack before swinging his wide sword, thewhooshas the heavy blade cut through the air in front of me damn near making me piss myself.

I stumbled backward in shock. Raiden jumped into the air, his wings flapping once, and then he brought his sword down on the giant demon’s head, the blade going right through the thing’s skull. Its body jerked before collapsing.

“Scratch that,” Raiden said, pulling his sword free from the demon’s head with a sickening wet sound. “You won’t be safe here either. These bastards are everywhere.”

“So what do we do?”

He offered me his sword. “You ever use one of these before?”

“Do video games count?” My hand shook as I grabbed it.

“About as much as watching cooking shows makes you a chef,” Raiden responded, watching me as I tested the weight of the sword.

“It’s heavier than it looks.”

“I don’t expect you to fight, but you need something to defend yourself with.” He pulled a second dagger from his boot, holding two of them as he turned to face the fighting up ahead. “Stay behind me, okay?”

I tightened my grip on the hilt and made a weird sound that should’ve been an “okay” but came out more like a squeak.

“Hold on,” Raiden said, putting an arm around me.